Exotic rocks for art and architecture
Decorative arts at Kenwood House
Kenwood House is well known for its leafy setting in Hampstead Heath, for the architecture of Robert Adam and for the collections of pictures. Surprisingly, perhaps it is also place to attract those interested in rocks and fossils.
Rocks and fossils around the house
You can see fossils at the base of the pillars of the Orangery which are made of Portland Limestone
There are also three types of stone paving between the columns of the main entrance to Kenwood House. Most interesting are the slabs of limestone from Sweden which feature very unusual orthoceras fossils. The fossils are all that remains of animals that burrowed in sediments in the Ordovician period 500 million years ago.
Sculptural rocks
Another type of limestone was used by Barbara Hepworth for her Monolith Empyrean. This Carboniferous Limestone probably came from Derbyshire. It is another rock with interesting fossils.
Eugene Dordeigne used another limestone for his sculpture 'Flamme'. This is also a Carboniferous limestone which is about 350 million years old. This rock is rich with fossil remains of brachiopods and sea-lilies.
Henry Moore's sculpture called 'Reclining Figure No. 5'
stands on a plinth clad with a type of slate created from the ash and lava of a volcanic eruption which happened about 450 million years ago. This slate was quarried in the Lake District.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 07 May 2007
